Vic Cherubini has a recent post on his site sharing for free the contents of a book he'd written previously about "Expert PHP Deployments":

In 2013 I wrote and self-published a book titled "Expert PHP Deployments". While it was not a smashing success, it sold enough copies to pay for itself, and I was happy to have a published book to my name. Unfortunately, I have not had time to market it, update it, or further improve it, so I am giving it away for free. You can read the book in its entirety below or download it as a PDF.

The book covers a wide range of topics related to deploying PHP applications including:

Environment configuration (setting up Vagrant for the developers)

Working with the Phing automation tool

Building deployments with Capistrano

Creating and configuring a production server

Ensuring the security of the server

Making the actual deployment

The post has the full text of the book in one page but you can grab the PDF if you prefer that format.

Francesca Krihely has a new post today taking about one of the realities of using open source software. While the cost of it might be "free", in truth it isn't.

Why is it so hard to move off your old FOSS tools to new FOSS tools? Free and open software is changing the world, and has been for quite some time. While the price of open source software is usually $0 there are a number of hidden costs associated with building on top of new FOSS tools. The hidden cost is what makes community your biggest asset in open source.

She gives a more "real world" kind of situation where a company has a lot of legacy technology in place from years of work. She points out that moving to the latest technology has both benefits and drawbacks (including the "opportunity cost of moving slower" because of the shift). There's an emphasis put on the community around projects too. Without a vibrant community around it, even the best, most well-written code out there is going to stagnate. For a company that's relying on it for their product, that's almost not worth the risk.

A while back Alan Forbes started a Kickstarter project to write a PHP book, "The Joy of PHP". This book was targeted at those that wanted to learn PHP and "have some fun along the way". The book has been finished and, in a special promotion, is being offered free of charge through Amazon and for the next five days.

The book "The Joy of PHP" by Alan Forbes now available as a Kindle book on Amazon.com. Starting today (or tomorrow, depending on Amazon) and lasting only 5 days the book will be absolutely free. The only "catch" is that the author is asking for reviews. In other words, once you've taken a look a the book please go back to the book listing on Amazon and give it a star rating from 1 to 5 to help the author build momentum for the book.

You can find out more about the book on its website and, if you don't want the Kindle version, pick up a copy of the PDF version for just $12 USD.

UPDATE: the free offer for this book has been extended and is available for no cost for a limited time!

On the Symfony blog Fabien Potencier has posted a quick note about the Symfony Live Paris 2012 session videos being available online for free.

During SymfonyLive Paris 2012, we recorded all the sessions that were delivered in the two main rooms. That's a total of more than 15 hours of Symfony and PHP goodness. We promised a free access to all attendees, but we have decided to provide all the videos for free and for everyone. So, if you were not able to join us in Paris, this is a unique opportunity to watch all the great sessions we had.

php|architect has announced a new contest they'll be hosting (a scavenger hunt, really) and are giving away a ticket to this year's php|tek conference happening in May in Chicago.

Ok PHP fans, we don't do this often, but once a year we do give away a ticket to php|tek to one lucky programmer. This year, however, you are going to have to work for it. Starting Friday, April 13th, 2012, those of us who work at php|architect will tweet clues, and you are going on a web scavenger hunt. That's right, dig up other people's websites, trash their JavaScript and generally make a nuisance of yourself as you follow the clues to the…well, you'll just have to wait and see.

You'll need to follow the php|architect folks on Twiiter (Elizabeth Tucker, Marco Tabini and Cal Evans) to get clues about the hunt. First prize is a ticket to php|tek this year but other prizes include a ticket to their next Virtual Summit, any three books from their catalog and a free one-year subscription to the magazine.

Once you've found the solution, you'll need to enter it here to be entered. Good luck!

php|architect magazine has started a program to help out those in need via the Red Cross. To encourage donations, they'll provide a free subscription for anyone giving $25 USD or more to the Red Cross' effort.

It is in the time of crisis that communities pull together to help those in need; the PHP community is no different. Past experience has shown the generosity of the PHP community and we know that many of you have already stepped up to help. All of us at php|architect want to encourage you to join us in giving to the Red Cross to support their relief efforts in Japan.

By forwarding the contribution confirmation email to the address in the post, you'll be sent a subscription coupon good for a free year of the magazine. You must have your email submitted by 5pm EDT on Friday Marth 18th to be considered.